The Researcher
by Orange -Fear Me
Summary: Erik is a sixteen year old boy from Cinnabar Island. Unlike most children in the land, he's not choosing to be a trainer. Instead, he's dedicating his life to the study of Pokemon. A Pokemon Professor. Rated T for the future.


First of all, I must say that I am NOT a Pokemon fan at all. I used to be when I saw younger, but I grew out of the craze. You might ask why I am writing this story at all, then. Well, recently my brother was watching one of the older episodes of Pokemon on TV. I paused what I was doing and watched over his shoulder; it brought back good memories. I tried the games again as well and found that I still liked them. So, it brought me around to writing my first and probably only Pokemon story.

I will warn you now; this won't be your usual 'catch 'em all' Pokemon Trainer story. This is about a boy training to be a Pokemon researcher/professor.

May I also add that I have taken out some area's that were in the games/anime simply because I don't like them and this won't be entirely accurate as well.

Disclaimer: Ah dun' own the Pokemon.

Chapter One: The Real world of Pokemon

The six excited school children sat casually on desks around the warm classroom, listening to their teacher talk. Today was a special day for these six children. This would be the last time any of them would sit in classroom 12 and listen to a teacher. Possibly – in years to come – some of them would sit in the teachers' desk, but that wouldn't be for years.

Yes, today was the last day in Cinnabar Island Regional School for Erik, Marissa, Sara, Har, Karen and Rosy – all of them sixteen years old. Each of them knew – or at least had some inkling – what they were going to be doing once the final bell rang. Two of them wanted to be Pokemon Trainers, one of them a Co-ordinator. One of them wanted to study to become a teacher, one of them was thinking of making a living out of their hobby, fishing. The last one of them, Erik, wanted to be a Pokemon Professor. To study Pokemon behaviour, eating habits and their habitats. Writing every little detail down and making an 'important' discovery. Discoveries were being made every day by Pokemon researchers! Sure, it doesn't sound very exiting, but Erik loved that sort of thing; loved it.

The class had originally had more than double the amount of students, when the little 6 year olds had their first day of school. But at the age of 13 – when you were officially old enough to get a Pokemon trainer or Co-ordinator licence – 8 children had left, despite the warnings of the Teacher, Mr Moore. "If you leave school now, you'll be working picking up garbage on the beach in three years!" were his exact words, to be precise.

Mr Moore now looked down at his students from his place behind his desk and began one of his famous 'end of school' speeches.

"Well. Last day of School, eh?" He started simply.

"And I hope I never see any one of you again!" He said, slamming his fist against the table. If it was any other teacher the children would have laughed, but you could never tell with Mr Moore. The teacher glared down at his nervous students before letting a slight smirk come to his face.

"This is your last day in this classroom with me. Some of you are going to be good trainers, because you decided to wait until you'd been thought everything I could teach you, instead of running away like those idiots a few years ago," He said, bristling with anger.

"The rest of you will be doing… other jobs. Karen, you want to be a teacher, right? Well, that's three years of college for you, then. Erik, you want to be a researcher. Good luck with that. Harry… a FISHERMAN? What the hell were you thinking when you thought up that?! I always said you could do way better than that!" Har grimaced at the verbal onslaught. In actual fact, Moore had always said that Har was useful for nothing and should kill himself to save the world from having to cope with him. Yes, Mr Moore was a cheerful fellow, wasn't he?

"Anyway: good look to you all. You will all hopefully do well in life and for those that don't… there are a lot of beaches waiting to be cleaned!" he finished with an evil grin on his face. A thoughtful look dawned upon his face next for a few seconds before it turned back into a frown.

"Right, since today is your last day in this school, I think I'll go easy on you!" he proclaimed, causing small grins to appear on the faces of his pupils.

"I just have one small speech to say to you. I'll make a deal with you; you listen very carefully to what I have to say now and I'll let you go when I'm finished – regardless of the time. Everyone agree with that?" He said with a soft tone to his voice. A few of the class members nodded; too scared to speak lest the teacher decide to keep them in the full day instead.

"SPEAK UP!" Moore suddenly roared at the class with spittle flying out of his mouth. Erik jolted with surprise and he called out a loud "Yes sir" along with the rest of the class.

"Good," Said Moore, in a soft tone again.

"Now, listen very carefully here. This is just a recap of what I have thought you over the years about the real world. The real world is NOT at all like the books and films that you see every day. In the real world if you mess up, it WILL come back to haunt you and you'll regret it. If you get lost in some woods in the middle of no where without any Pokemon, the chances are that you will die. I know, it's not a nice thought, is it? So in the real world you must be prepared for accidents. I know all of you already have a Pokemon, but I'm just warning you to take it everywhere with you. Life is much lonelier without Pokemon," He said with a hardened glint in his eye.

"Even I have one," He said with what might have been a smile on his face. He reached down to his belt and withdrew a minimized Pokeball. He clicked the button and a Pokemon was released in a flash of red light. A Golduck stepped out onto the floor and stared at the class with its beady eyes. The class was surprised; they had all seen the single Ball on the teacher's belt from day one, but the teacher had never shown it to them or even mentioned it while speaking. Of course none of them were ever brave enough to ask him about it…

"Didn't know you had a Golduck…" Rosy said simply.

"You didn't ever ask…" Moore growled back at her, causing her to cower back in her seat.

"Aaaaanyway, we'll move on now," Moore said, leaving the Golduck out to eye the room, somewhat evilly.

"I'll tell you a bit about actually catching a Pokemon next. Even the ones among you who aren't becoming trainers will probably catch quite a few Pokemon in their life time, so it's an important skill. Let me remind you that Pokemon are much harder to catch in real life than in the TV programs. First of all, most of them are very alert and will run away before you even get close to them if you just come blundering along the road. Of course, some species have less acute senses than other's and there are always the few 'brave' and adventurous ones that will willingly seek out trainers so they can travel. Of course, these ones are very rare and you might only get a few chances like that in a whole year!" He finished in an enthusiastic, almost happy tone.

"And training Pokemon is one of the hardest things you will ever have to do in life. After you catch your Pokemon you have to first get it used to you before you can start training it for battling or anything like that. When it gets used to you depends on how clever or stubborn the Pokemon is. Some take only a couple of weeks, others… years. That is why a lot of captured Pokemon are released by trainers back to where they were found. These Pokemon simply don't want to be trained!

And once you and your partner are used to each other you can start gaining levels which is difficult… to say the least. I've had Sapphire here since I was 13 - 48 years - and she is on level 42. She was unusual; born a Golduck, skipping the Psyduck form altogether. Mind you, I was only a trainer for two years, but I still did use her quite regularly for the rest of my life. Yes, levelling up Pokemon is hard.

But, level isn't everything you need to win in a fight. Level just determines how strong it's possible for the Pokemon to become. Real skill is making do with what you have and having a good strategy." He finished with a clear glint in his eye, as if remembering the days of his youth. "Everyone got that much?" He questioned. A few nods came from around the class. They had all heard this before many times; all Moore was really doing was reviving their memories.

"Excellent. There isn't really much left to tell you all, actually…" He said, trailing off and scratching his head.

"I suppose I'm going to have to let you go, huh?" he questioned, looking at the close with a curious look. Slowly a few members of the class nodded their heads; not quite believing that they were being let go.

"Let's finish it up then!" he said cheerfully.

"Just… try your best in life… all of you. Don't give up if you fail one time. Always keep going. Take your partners with you everywhere; they'll get lonely without you and you'll get lonely without them. Try to travel around and see the world. It's an amazing place out there, really." Moore called out with a broad smile on his face.

"Now, go. Get out of my sight. I really don't want to see any of you again until you are successful in life." He pointed a finger at the door and looked at the class. Each of the students walked past him out the door, mumbling a 'Goodbye, sir' as they went by.

Erik stepped out into the bright sunshine of a beautiful morning on Cinnabar Island. He grinned to his best friend Har as he came out behind.

"Never thought I'd see the day when he complimented me!" Har said with a laugh.

"Yeah… he was in a good mood today… sorta," Erik replied, still grinning broadly.

"Anyway, let's go home" Har said cheerfully.

"My little brother is going to be so pissed off that I got out, like, 4 hours earlier!"

Ok, I combined the first chapter introducing you to a few characters (Some of whom will be making more appearances later on) and introduced you to my Pokemon world at the same time. Let me tell you now that my Pokemon world will be much different to other peoples. One of the biggest things is that I'll be leaving out a lot - if not all – the Sinnoh Pokemon because I hate them. The land itself might make a few appearances, though.

Well, I hope you like it!

-Dan


End file.
